Barry Soper: ZB senior political correspondent on the Government's changes to the building consent process

The Government is partly removing councils from the building consent process. 

It's announced an opt-in 'self certification scheme' will let qualified tradespeople forgo inspections. 

It'll open to those with a proven track-record, such as companies building scores of near-identical homes. 

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper expects people will react positively to these new changes. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Very so.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Per senior political correspondent is with us.

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, Barry, Good afternoon, Heather. What do you make of
the building.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Of these trusted builders being able to certify themselves. Why
are you laughing?

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Well, because I knew you would love the topic being
a builder yourself.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Having waited for building and spise.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yes, exactly, And I mean a lot of people probably
don't know. On average it takes almost five hundred and
seventy days to build a house in this country. Ridiculous
and that's basically waiting for consent. And the point that
Chris Pink, the Building Minister, makes is that, look, there's

(00:39):
a housing shortage at the moment. We've got to get
houses built. And you remember Labor went there with its
key we Build program and of course with these consents
being in place, it would have taken multiple years to
achieve the one hundred thousand houses. But so on the
face of it, it looks really good. You're going to

(00:59):
get how was built more quickly. Businesses with a proven
track record, according to Chris Pink, like those that build
hundreds of near identical homes each year, they'll be able
to go through a more streamline process, which is good
and so builders and building professionals like plumbers, train layers,

(01:21):
they'll be able to certify their own work without the
need for an inspection. Now that got me thinking the
last time that we relaxed building standards in this country.
Clearly they have to be relaxed because you have to
wait far too long to get a consent. It's just
it's so cumbersome. But was back in nineteen ninety one
the Boulder government they brought in the Building Act and

(01:45):
that changed building controls from a prescriptive system to a
more self regulated system. Now you know what happened there
The builders without modeled homes of Mediterranean style houses in
this climate that were totally unsuitable. And of course we

(02:07):
had so many homes that were built that were leaky buildings,
which was terrible and the cost has put at twenty
three billion dollars for eighty nine thousand buildings during the
period that these leaky homes were being able to be built. Well,
that was all changed by head Girl Helen Clark when
she became the Prime Minister. I mean she wanted our

(02:28):
showers to be regulated, but she changed all that and
it's moved back since then to a much more prescriptive
system that takes so long. So I think any relaxation
is a good thing. But the devil is in the detail,
I guess, and we'll have to wait to see exactly
how they're going to qualify to build deprecate.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
But what is good about this system is that instead
of when things go wrong, the council having to bear
the cost of that defective work, because they were the
ones who inspected and divided, said it's okay, that will
now fall on these builders. Right, So if one of them,
one of these and they're big guys we're talking about,
it's not just like you know, Barry Soaper's construction company
from down the road. It's like a god, yeah, nobody

(03:14):
would have.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Seen some of your handywooks.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
But I think you know it's these big, big guys.
They will have to pay up if they stuff up right, well,
insurance will pay.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
It would seem that there is a system and going
to be paid. I like that where they will be
held much more accountable. And if they're going to take
on their self certification, then they're going to be very careful,
I would imagine, to ensure that the building is right
and not leaky like this said in the past.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Does Labor need to take the socials off Ginny?

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, you know people that go on the Hosking Show,
the politicians, are they jinxed in some way because we
had stun Ash and you know look where he ended up.
Now we've got Ginny Henderson on the Wednesdays.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Slot and you would be upset about that.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Well, and I wouldn't compare us due to Ginny Anderson,
but you know, you you remember in February this year
that she claimed that Mark Mitchell, the police minister, and
she was the former former police minister, he was paid
to kill people and she asked him whether he kept
telling of how many people he had shot while it

(04:22):
was just it was so offensive, it was unbelievable. Somebody
would say that in public, Well she had to. Well,
she didn't really apologize. She said that she went too far,
and it would seem this is the same sort of thing.
I mean, you know you've got Andrew Bailey for the
National Party. Well, I think she's much worse in some
of the stuff that she's been doing. And we see

(04:43):
now she posted a reposted a meme on her Instagram account. Now,
I remember last week seeing this photo of Chris Luxon
standing alongside King Charles, and the only thing that I
thought was what a shabby suit the Kings turned out?
And then I sort of forgave him to some extent.
It was shabby, it was awful. It was badly fitted.

(05:07):
And I think, I think maybe the poor man, because
he has been terrible away, maybe well you think the
tailors would come in and make him look a bit
smarter than what he did. The point that was, that
was the only point that I looked at the fire,
It's all. But others saw his crutch area looking like

(05:28):
female genitalia, and they put out a meme to that extent,
which I thought was patently absurd. She do. She went
and reposted the meme and then went, I'm sorry, I've
got to take it down. It's causing people offense. I mean, please, Jinny,
get your act together.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Berry, Thank you, Barris strong opinions, Strong opinions about this
khaki colored suit is a khaki safari colored suit. Barry Sober,
Senior Political correspondence.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
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